


The Only Option

by orphan_account



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Angst, Hurt Magnus, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Self-Sacrifice, and how willing he is to sacrifice things for Alec, basically I wanted people to appreciate all of the things Magnus does for them, even himself, just me wanting some good 'ol h/c, not character death though
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-03
Updated: 2017-03-06
Packaged: 2018-09-28 01:37:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10062074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: After watching Alec almost die trying to find Jace using his Parabatai bond, Magnus makes a promise to himself that he'll do whatever it takes to keep Alec safe. When Alec asks Magnus to accompany him and a few of his fellow shadowhunters on their next demon hunting assignment, Magnus gets a chance to keep that promise -- and then some.





	1. Chapter 1

            The battle was finally,  _finally_ winding down, and Magnus would’ve started crying with relief if he wasn’t otherwise occupied.

            He, along with the Lightwood-Waylan siblings and Clary Fray, had been fighting a barrage of Shax demons in the sewers of Manhattan for what felt like days, even though in reality it was probably closer to an hour or so. Alec had received the call from the Institute while Magnus was making them both dinner at his loft, and while initially he’d been rather miffed about having to cancel date night (“for the _third_ time this month,” he’d thought to himself bitterly — not that he was keeping track or anything), he’d been more than willing to forgive and forget the interruption when Alec asked him to come along on the mission. Though they rarely got the chance to do so any more, what with their constantly conflicting schedules and the ever-looming threat of Valentine and his followers overshadowing both of their lives, Magnus loved fighting alongside Alec. Not only did it allow him to watch his lover in action of the battlefield — a truly impressive sight no matter the situation, whether he was wielding his trusty bow or cutting down enemies with a glowing seraph blade — it also gave him the opportunity to keep an eye on Alec and be there for him if he somehow became injured.

            While he’d never admit it to Alec’s face, Magnus still occasionally had nightmares about the time when he thought he’d lost Alec for good, terrifying dreams where Jace didn’t reach the loft in time to save his Parabatai from slipping away into the void. Magnus would wake up from these nightmares, gasping, with the image of Alec taking his final breath still burning in his mind, and remember once again how powerless he felt in the face of Alec’s suffering. He wanted to do everything he could to keep that dream — that nightmare — from becoming a reality, and so when Alec aked him if he would be willing to provide a little magical aid in the upcoming demon eradication, Magnus more than enthusiastically agreed.

            The fight itself turned out to be grueling, even for a being as powerful as himself. If Magnus hadn’t known from the start that they were going to battle Shax, he would’ve sworn that he had just walked into a vampire nest from the way the demons were swarming the sewer drains. With only four shadowhunters and one warlock against the horde of Hellspawn coming at them, they had all been quickly separated, each becoming somewhat cornered into one section of the sewer by wave after wave of enemies. Magnus panicked for a moment when he initially lost sight of Alec, but he knew he couldn’t focus on that while simultaneously keeping the demons at bay of he expected to stay alive. Besides, Alec had survived this long without him. He could take care of himself until Magnus found a way to be by his side again.

             Finally, Magnus reached for the final demon coming towards him and grabbed it with his magic. Using what was left of his strength, he threw it into the slimy brick ceiling, knocking it unconscious before squeezing his hand and shattering it into pieces. He stumbled back until he hit wall behind him, then leaned forward on his knees to catch his breath.

             “You must be getting old, Magnus,” he mumbled to himself, panting. “Almost all of your power sapped by one Shax demon fight? Maybe next time you should just stay home.” With that remark, he was once again reminded of his original purpose for being there, and he immediately stood up straight to start looking for Alec. To his left, he saw Jace and Clary working in tandem to finish off the last of their attackers, blades spinning around each other like beams of sunlight in the dark tunnel. Directly ahead of him, Izzy was having no problem taking care of things. Magnus watched as she lashed out at her last demon with her whip to stun it, giving her enough time to safely get in close and deliver a spinning kick to send it to the ground. After she dispatched it with her seraph blade, Magnus continued his search, finally finding what he was looking for off to the right end of the tunnel. Alec, bow abandoned or lost somewhere earlier in the fight, was locked in physical combat with his last demon. The Shax had it’s four-pronged mouth wide open, jaws dripping with lethal poison as it tried to get closer to Alec’s body. Alec was doing his best to keep it as far away from himself as possible, preventing it from harming him while at the same time attempting to reach for the blade at his hip, but it was clear that he was fighting what was rapidly becoming a losing battle.

             Magnus felt his blood run cold at the sight of this, his worst fear, being played out in vivid detail in front of him. He tried to feel for his magic, to try and reach out and tear the demon away, but hard as he tried, all he could manage was a few blue sparks from his fingertips. Feeling his panic continue to rise, Magnus started running towards the struggle, thinking that if he didn’t have his powers he could at least provide another physical presence to keep the demon away from Alec. He look a few sprinting steps, then stopped, skidding to a stop and watching, horrified, as a new threat reared its ugly head — literally.

             Another demon, this one with one of Alec’s arrows embedded in its side, was slowly standing from where it had fallen to the floor earlier in combat. In it’s hand, Magnus could see it held something long and slender, dark-colored to blend in with the darkness of the sewers. As the demon raised its arm, Magnus recognized the object as none other than Alec’s missing bow.

            “Oh, Hell,” he whispered breathlessly, and he could only watch, paralyzed with fear, as the demon reached around and pulled Alec’s arrow from its own abdomen. As it notched the arrow, Magnus finally shook himself out of his stupor and started running again, towards both Alec and his combatant and the demon who now had a poison-covered arrow pointed directly at Alec’s back.

             Once again, Magnus reached for his magic. He found that the sudden rush of adrenaline from moments before had suddenly given his powers a boost of energy, but they were too wild for him to really have any control over them. As he ran, he weighed his options frantically. He could try to hit the demon fighting Alec with a blast of magic, throwing it to the side while at the same time calling for Alec to duck, and hope that Alec’s shadowhunter reflexes would give him enough time to avoid the arrow coming at him from behind. However, Magnus quickly dismissed the idea. What is the blast hit Alec instead, on accident? Or what if it didn’t, but Alec wasn’t then fast enough to move out of the arrow’s path? It was too risky — there had to be another way. He then considered directing his magic at the archer demon, but there was also too great a risk — the blast could catch the arrow and fling it at Alec anyway. Magnus’ breath caught in his throat, but he kept running. He realized that there was only one option left.

             Calling on his magic, he gave himself a burst of speeding, sprinting towards Alec with everything he had. He reached the fight just as he heard the demon behind him release the arrow, and he closed his eyes as he turned to block Alec’s unprotected back from imminent death — with his own unprotected chest.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for your comments and kudos! I'm thinking this will probably be a five or six chaptered fic, so I'll leave you with this and get to work on the rest!

           Magnus _saw_ the impact before he felt it, using the last of his strength to obliterate the archer demon as he glimpsed the arrow protruding from his chest in his peripheral vision. His sudden appearance had shocked the demon Alec was fighting into a momentary standstill, but since Alec was oblivious to what was happening behind him, he had no such problem. Using the demon’s temporary lapse in focus, he finally managed to throw it to the ground, drawing his seraph and driving it directly into the creature’s heart. It burst into thousands of tiny pieces before it even registered that it had fallen, and Alec grinned with satisfaction as he watched it disintegrate. After it was dead, he stood up to re-sheathe his blade, turning around to see if anyone else was still fighting or needed assistance. But no amount of shadowhunter instinct or training could have could have prepared him for what he saw.

           Magnus had fallen to the ground, lying on his back among piles of demon ash and unconscious bodies waiting to be dealt with, a long feathered arrow stuck through the center of his chest. He was breathing, but shallowly, and his eyelids were staring to flutter closed. Alec took a small step forward, not believing his own eyes.

           “Magnus?” he whispered, but the figure in front of him gave no reply. He took another step forward.

           “Magnus,” he said again, louder this time, and that earned him a low groan of pain from Magnus that sent Alec hurtling into action.He dropped to his knees next to the warlock, lifting him carefully into his lap in a gruesome parody of the first time Magnus had asked Alec for his strength. Alec would have gladly done the same now as he did then, if only he could get Magnus to fully open his eyes and look at him.

           “Magnus, oh — oh my God,” Alec stammered, pressing a hand to the area around where the arrow had penetrated, noting already that the fabric of Magnus’ shirt was already soaked with blood. He looked over to where the other three shadowhunters were cleaning up the bodies, his eyes frantic.

           “Jace!” he screamed, “Izzy! Clary! I need help!” Magnus moaned again, shifting uncomfortably in Alec’s arms in response to his yelling. Alec looked back down at Magnus’ face as Clary and his siblings rushed towards him. When they got close enough to see what had happened, Jace swore and dropped to his knees next to Alec, with Izzy and Clary gasped quietly and moved around to the other side of Magnus’ body. Jace’s eyes roamed both Alec and Magnus, checking for other injuries, before his gaze settled on the arrow. He clenched his jaw.

           “Alec, what happened?” he asked. Alec shook his head.

           “I don’t — I don’t know,” he replied shakily. “I was — I was fighting a Shax demon hand to hand, but I — I couldn’t seem to throw it down. Something finally distracted it long enough for me to kill it, but — when I turned around, he — Magnus—” Alec broke off, shaking his head and biting his lip as he kept trying to apply pressure to Magnus’ wound. Jace looked back at Magnus as Izzy spoke up.

           “If he was down when you turned around, that means a Shax must have fired the arrow at him,” she said, and Clary turned to her.

           “But if a Shax got its hands on the arrow,” she said, horrified, “then that means —”

           “It’s contaminated,” Jace finished for her. He rubbed a hand over his face. “Poison. We have to take the arrow out before it works its way too far though his bloodstream.” Alec went pale, eyes wide as he looked up at Jace sharply.

           “Take it out?” he snapped, gesturing to their filthy surroundings. “You want to expose an open wound to this kind of environment?”

           “Look, I don’t like it either,” Jace retorted, glancing down at Magnus’ prone form. “But if we _don’t,_ the Shax poison will kill him faster than an infection will. If we take the arrow out now and get him to the surface quickly, we’ll have time to take him to the Institute and find someone who can heal him.” Alec closed his eyes, pressing his lips together as Jace reasoned with him. It was the last thing he wanted to do — pulling out the arrow would be excruciating, and Magnus didn’t need to be in any more pain than he already was — but Jace was right. He looked back at his Parabatai and nodded jerkily, to which Jace responded with a small nod of his own.

           “Alright,” he declared, reaching up to grasp the shaft of the arrow with one hand. “Izzy, Clary, grab his legs. Alec, hold onto him. Tightly.” They all did as they were instructed, and Jace braced his other hand on Magnus’ chest. When he was sure Alec had a firm grip on Magnus’ shoulders, he gave one hard tug and yanked the arrow free.

           Magnus’ scream echoed against the brick walls of the sewer, amplified by the domed ceiling and bouncing down the curved tunnels. His entire world was narrowed down to the searing pain in the middle of his chest, making his ribcage feel like it was going to collapse and setting his whole body on fire. He could feel the Shax poison working its way through his bloodstream, blackness oozing through his veins as he fought to stay awake. 

           Though the source of the poison was gone, it was still taking hold of his every movement. He faintly registered someone calling his name, or at least yelling _something_ in his general direction, and he tried to call back, to say Alec’s name, to tell whoever was yelling at him to make sure that Alec was all right. But the pain, along with the utter exhaustion from the battle, was finally catching up with him. After the arrow was fully removed, he went completely limp, and allowed the numbing darkness creeping at the edges of his vision to swallow him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> UPDATE: So I just finished writing the whole outline for this fic (!!!!! v excited), and it looks like it's going to be six chapters with an extended epilogue (1-2 more chapters). Just so you all know, once the epilogue comes out, the rating of this fic will change from T to E. Thank you for reading! I'll probably update this weekend, Monday night at the latest.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys like long chapters! This one...kinda got away from me. But more words means more angst and relationship development, so...yay for that! Enjoy!

         The scream of pain that was ripped out of Magnus’ throat after Jace pulled the arrow out shook Alec to his very core. He felt Magnus tense in his arms, trying to move away from the source of the pain and curl in on himself. To keep him from injuring himself further, Clary and Izzy were keeping a death grip on his thighs, while Alec held Magnus’ shoulders in a vice grip as he cried out and writhed in pain. After a few moments, Magnus finally opened his eyes, but they were wild and unseeing, darting back and forth to instinctually look for whatever was hurting him. With most of his magic drained, they had become unglamoured as well, and Alec rested his hand against Magnus’ face in an attempt to make those golden cat-eyes lock with his own. 

         “Magnus!” he all but shouted, trying to get through to him in his pain-induced stupor. “Magnus, we’ve got you! You’re safe. Please, it’s okay. It’s okay.” Alec’s words seemed to have some effect, calming Magnus down ever so slightly, but his eyes were beginning to slip closed again. Magnus slowly opened his mouth, visibly fighting to stay conscious.

         “A…Alexander,” he croaked, and Alec almost started crying with relief.

         “Yes, Magnus, it’s me,” he assured his lover, stroking his thumb along Magnus’ cheekbone. “I’m here. You’re going to be fine.” Magnus, however, did not seem to hear him. His eyes were fully closed now, but they were rapidly darting back and forth behind his eyelids. 

         “Alexander…save Alec…” he continued to murmur, slowly sinking further into Alec’s embrace. “Please…he can’t…make sure he’s…Alexander…” With Alec’s name still a breath on his lips, Magnus finally lost his battle with consciousness, his head lolling back as he slipped under. Alec choked and shook Magnus slightly, patting his face as hard as he could without injuring him further.

         “Nonononono, Magnus, _Magnus!_ You have to stay awake, please, just try to stay awake a little longer!” While normally Magnus was willing to do almost anything Alec asked of him, on this point he was disturbingly stubborn, and his eyes remained closed. Jace put a hand on Alec’s shoulder, causing him to still his movements,

         “C’mon, Alec,” he said, ripping off a wad of fabric from his t-shirt to create a makeshift compress and pushing it on the fresh hole on Magnus’ chest. “We have to get him out of here. Pick him up and let’s move. _Now_.” Jace stood, and Alec looked up at his Parabatai feeling a little dazed. It felt as if he were on the outside of this whole situation looking in, like everything that had happened up to this point was a horrific movie being played out just for him to watch. But he’d never been one to easily disobey a direct order, and so despite his shaken state, his his body moved on autopilot, carefully securing Magnus in his arms bridle-style with the fabric pressed to the wound. He followed Jace out of the tunnel quickly, while Clary and Izzy took up sentry positions behind him, just in case there were any more rogue Shax lurking around. Together, they all took off through the sewers, navigating through the dark and damp of the New York underground. 

         Alec grimaced each time he had to jump over a piece of exposed pipe or sidestep uneven parts of the brick floor, jostling Magnus every time he did so. The rest of the group shared his worry, and though they never communicated anything out loud, one thought rang clearly through all four of their minds: they had finished one mission tonight already, it was true. But as Magnus’ life dripped in crimson droplets onto the wet bricks, they knew that another even more important mission had just been laid out before them — one that they would do everything in their power to complete. 

* * *

 

         When the four shadowhunters burst through the Institute’s doors with their injured cargo, nearly all of the heads on the war room floor shot up in surprise at the commotion. Jaws dropped and a low buzz of questioning voices immediately began filling the air, but Alec, along with his siblings and Clary, ignored them all. They rushed to the back halls of the Institute where the bedrooms were, and by some sick twist of fate that made Alec’s stomach turn, the first door they encountered was none other than the entrance to his own bedroom. He eyed it with trepidation, remembering how close he himself had come to death in that very same room only weeks earlier, but he shook it off. Magnus didn’t have time for them to look for a substitute. He turned sharply towards the others, slipping into the leadership role that he had temporarily surrendered to Jace.

         “Clary, unlock the door — quickly,” he commanded, grasping the body in his arms tighter against his chest. “We need to get him lying down. Izzy, Jace — get to the infirmary. Grab the first healer you see and bring him here as fast as you can. Clary and I will do what we can until you show up.” Mouths set in equally grim lines, Jace and Izzy nodded and disappeared in the direction of the healing rooms. Alec turned back towards the door, which by this time Clary had successfully opened, and the both hurried inside.

         Carefully, Alec laid Magnus down on top of the covers, while Clary adjusted the pillows so that his body was reclining rather than lying fully horizontal. Once again relying on muscle memory, Alec allowed the medical training that had been drilled into him since his childhood to take over. Using his seraph, he neatly sliced open the front of Magnus’ (now completely ruined) silk shirt and pulled the pieces, along with the temporary compress, aside, allowing himself a small smile at the reaction Magnus would undoubtedly have towards his shirts’ treatment — if only had he been awake to see it. His humor, however, was short-lived, and his breath hitched in his throat as the true extent of the arrow’s damage was revealed to him. 

         The arrow had not, as he had originally thought, pierced between Magnus’ ribs, and for that he was momentarily grateful. But then he looked down further, to where the arrow had _truly_ hit, and all sensation seemed to leave his body at once. Just under the left side of Magnus’ ribcage there was a two inch long hole, slowly dripping blood down Magnus’ torso and off to the side to soak the bedcovers. The poison that the arrow tip had been covered in had caused the area surrounding the wound to turn completely black, and Alec noted with mounting horror that the blackness was visibly branching through Magnus’ veins and creeping up towards his heart. 

         Alec heard Clary make a small distressed noise next to him, but seeing the wound had caused him to once again go into his own state of shock, and for a few moments all he could do was stare and wonder why, _why_ Magnus had jumped in front of the arrow in the first place. Magnus was perfectly capable of deflecting a single arrow with his magic. Why hadn’t he kept himself at a safe distance and gotten rid of the archer demon that way? The only reason he would have had to physically block the arrow would have been if he was too worn out to — 

         The realization of how exhausted the battle must have left his lover struck Alec cold, but before he could think about his discovery further the figure on the bed gave a low groan of pain. Alec snapped out of his daze in an instant, leaning over Magnus to see if he could decipher anything.

         “Magnus? Magnus, can you hear me?” he asked, but Magnus gave no reply, only another pained noise as he lolled his head to one side. Clary reached out to cup Magnus’ cheek, and Alec forced himself to refocus. He wasn’t doing Magnus any favors by sitting around wondering how things could have gone differently in the fight against the Shax. What was done was done, and now it was his responsibility to do whatever he could to fix it. He turned to Clary.

         “Help me lift him forward,” he said. She complied, and together they stripped off the remnants of the shirt to fully expose Magnus’ upper body. Reaching into the bedside table, Alec reached for the small medkit he kept there in case of emergencies, removing antiseptic and a small roll of bandages. He passed the bandages to Clary.

         “The healer will have to deal with the poison,” he explained, tearing off the seal on the antiseptic bottle and popping off the cap, “but this will sterilize the wound and buy him some more time. Pass me those bandages back.” Wordlessly, she unrolled the gauze and handed him the nearest end. He soaked half of the bandages in the disinfecting agent, folding them up to make another compress and gesturing to Clary to hold Magnus down again. When she was in position, he pressed the compress as gently as he could against Magnus’ injured flesh. He winced as another scream pierced the air. The pain from the antiseptic brought Magnus half out of his unconscious state, and he cried out and struggled until he was once again too weak to fight it anymore. By the time Alec had secured the compress in place, Magnus had passed out again, but at least the bleeding had temporarily stopped.

         Utterly absorbed in double-checking the dressing on the wound, Alec didn’t even notice that Clary had stood up until she was sitting down next to him, bed dipping as she slowly sank down onto the covers. She looked at Magnus, whose breathing had finally evened out, before glancing over at Alec with a soft expression on her face.

         “Alec, he’s going to be okay,” she said, to which Alec have her a sharp, wide-eyed look that probably looked more like panic than anything else. Clary sighed, looking down, before placing a hand on his shoulder.

         “I know everything seems hopeless right now,” she said, looking back up and into his eyes imploringly, “but you have to know that no matter what happens, you’re going to make it through this. I’ve been on the end of both outcomes of a situation like this. With Simon…though he wasn’t exactly the same as before, when he came back and I got to keep him as a part of my life, the feeling of happiness that I felt was…indescribable. With…with my mother —” Alec stopped breathing for a moment. Clary had broken eye contact with him during the first part of her story, but now she regained it and reassured him with her gaze.

         “No, Alec. I’m not using this as an opportunity to blame you — I don’t not at all. But I just want you to know that while it was…hard, at first, adjusting to life without her, I’m…I’m starting to come to terms with it.” The sound that came out of Alec’s throat was close to the beginnings of a sob, and Clary tightened her grip on his shoulder, drawing him closer to her.

         “We are going to do everything we can to save him, Alec,” she said firmly. “He means a lot to me, too. Maybe not as much as he does to you, but…still. A lot. And we — me, Izzy, Jace — we’re all going to be here for you.” She squeezed his shoulder again. “No matter what happens.” Alec stared at her for a second, frozen, before managing a jerky nod. She gave him a small smile, then released him, and they both looked down at the man who had gone from being a complete and total stranger to one of the most important individuals in either of their lives.

         Their quiet reflection was suddenly interrupted as the door to the bedroom burst open, revealing Jace and Izzy with a smaller man in tow. Though he was dressed all in black, he was carrying a bag that bore the iratze rune on its side, and Alec and Clary immediately knew he was the healer the other two shadowhunters had been sent to find. They jumped up to meet him, and he greeted them with a humorless grimace. He looked between the two of them, then raised an eyebrow.

         “Where’s the injured one, then?” He asked brusquely, his voice as hard as his countenance. Alec narrowed his eyes a bit, but stepped aside and gestured to the bed. The healer gave him a sidelong glance, then took a few steps forward, but stopped once he got a got a clear look at Magnus’ still form. He whipped his head around, fixing the four others each with a full-on glare.

         “Is this some kind of joke?” he hissed, looking between them, “Because it isn’t very funny.”

         “This is absolutely not a joking matter, Imperita,” Izzy said harshly, stepping in before Alec could say anything. “There’s a man lying there who’s been shot with an arrow and poisoned by a Shax demon. He needs your help.”

         “ _Man?_ ” The healer, Imperita, scoffed. “Perhaps I should be examining _you,_ Miss Lightwood. For mental impairments.” Izzy looked shocked, and both Jace and Clary opened their mouths to retort, but the older man barreled on. 

         “I can say with confidence that there is no _man_ lying on that bed, nor anything close to resembling one for that matter. Now if you’re done wasting my time, I have more _important_ things to attend to than patching up insignificant _downworlders_ —” Before Imperita could utter another word, Alec’s hand shot out and grabbed his upper arm like a vice, causing the older man to yelp. While the other three were shocked at Alec’s sudden movement, they made no attempt to separate the two, and simply watched as Alec leaned down until he was almost touching Imperita’s nose.

         “I want you to listen to me,” he said in a low voice, “and I want you to listen carefully.” Though his tone was calm, each of his words had an edge to them, intense enough to make the hair on the back of Imperita’s neck stand on end. He gulped loudly as Alec continued.

         “The _person_ you see on that bed is, in fact, a downworlder. In fact, he just happens to be one of the most powerful downworlders on the entire continent. But in _no way,”_ he tightened his grip in Imperita’s arm to the point of bruising, maintaining eye contact as the healer squirmed, “does him being a warlock make him any less of a _man_ than you, or me, or anyone else on this goddamn planet. He is one of the bravest and kindest individuals I have ever had the good fortune of meeting, and the _reason_ he’s lying there unconscious is because he saved my life tonight. In a battle that he did _not_ have to be a part of.” He finally released the healer, who immediately went stumbling backwards, grabbing the end of the bed to regain his balance. As he stood, Alec crossed his arms and walked towards him slowly.

         “So, _Imperita,_ ” he all but snarled, gesturing towards the bed once more, “you, under orders from me, the _head_ of the New York City Institute, are going to do everything in your power to save him. And I swear to every angel above us and every demon below that if you fail to do your duty to its fullest extent, there will not be a court in all of Idris that will keep me from having you de-runed and cast down into the City of Bones.” He stopped, only inches from Imperita, and gazed down at him without a single drop of compassion.

         “ _Do I make myself clear?_ ” he asked. Imperita looked at Alec, then at the shadowhunters still at the doorway, then back at Alec. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but quickly snapped it shut and nodded once. He scurried over to the side of the bed, propping his bag on the bedside table.

         “Everybody get out,” he snapped, refusing to make eye contact with anyone else in the room. “If I’m going to do this, I need the room to be completely vacant.” 

         “Absolutely not!” Alec replied, face incredulous. Imperita glared at Alec over his shoulder.

         “You want me to heal him, don’t you?” he growled. “Shax poison isn’t exactly a walk in Central Park, _sir_. I need perfect concentration if I’m even going to _attempt_ doing this without using an iratze.” Alec once again started to protest, but Jace touched him lightly on the shoulder, cutting him off and getting his attention. He met Alec’s eyes sympathetically.

         “Alec, as much as I hate to admit it, he’s right,” Jace said. “If he can’t use runes on Magnus, then he has to try other methods that’ll take more work and effort. It’ll be best if we leave this to the professionals for now.”

         “He was with me, Jace,” Alec replied, shaking his head. “Magnus was with me the entire time, when I was…back when I tried to find you. He was by my side from the moment he heard about what happened until the moment I woke up. What kind of person would I be if I didn’t do the same for him?”

         “That was different and you know it,” Jace responded, his voice a little hoarse from recalling Alec’s near-fatal experience with the Adamas stone. “Magnus stayed because he cared about you, obviously. But he also stayed because he was using magic to keep you from going over the edge. I know you want to be here for him, Alec, but…face it: there’s really nothing else you can do for him at this point.”

         Jace’s words struck Alec like a blow from a wooden training staff. Of course. Of course that was true. Magnus had had the means to take care of him when no other healer could. Now that Magnus was the one whose life was in the balance, the best thing Alec could do for him was to step aside and let someone who actually had experience with healing do their job. Alec felt a cold sweat break on his forehead as he realized that this, _this_ was how Magnus must have felt before Jace walked through the doors of his loft all those nights ago: scared, lost, and utterly helpless in the face of his lover’s impending death. And at the same time, Alec suddenly realized the lengths that he would be willing to go to to make sure he never experienced these feelings ever again — even as far as to…throw himself between Magnus and an oncoming arrow…

         He was shaken out of his shocking epiphany by Jace’s hand on his shoulder. He blinked once, twice, then looked down at Jace before looking over to the bed. Imperita was standing there, looking unimpressed, but Alec ignored him and walked towards Magnus once more. He gazed at his lover for several seconds, ignoring the patch of white on his stomach that was slowly beginning to bleed red, then reached down and grasped his hand firmly, lacing their fingers together. Magnus gave no response, but Alec leaned towards him anyway, not stopping until he reached Magnus’ ear.

         “You’re going to by okay, Magnus,” he whispered, tightening his grip in the warlock’s hand. “You’re going to be okay. I have to leave now, but I’m going to be right here when you wake up. I promise.” Knowing that his resolve would crack if he lingered much longer, he let go of Magnus’ hand and stood, fixing Imperita with his glare once again.

         “Take care of him,” he said, to which Imperita bowed his head and sniffed haughtily. Alec turned and nodded to Clary and his siblings, and together they exited the room. Each of them paused to take once last glance at Magnus, until finally Alec grabbed the handle of the door and closed it firmly behind them all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *In case you couldn't tell, Clary and Alec are my BROTP. They are BROS. SUCH GOOD BROS. PLATONIC BROS. WHO ARE EACH IN LOVE WITH THEIR GIRLFRIEND AND BOYFRIEND RESPECTIVELY. (Clizzy is real and Todd Slavkin can meet me in the fucking pit.)
> 
> *Imperita's full name is Devon Jackson Imperita. Devon and Imperita come from the latin words _dives_ and _imperitus_ , which roughly translate to "rich" and "rude". Jackson is just the name of a guy I hate.


End file.
